What is meant to be a contest of ideas all too often descends into a conflict of personalities: politicians of all political stripes are guilty of having said things which are hurtful at "best" and shameful at worst about an opponent.
This is nothing new: from John A Lee’s psychopathology in politics article, to the Moyle affair, to then National leader Simon Bridges’ blunt assessment of the abilities of one of his MPs, politicians' evaluations of each other can be cutting and cruel.
While such behaviour is nothing new, there is still the potential for fresh barriers to be crossed and new types of attack to be utilised — all the more so in the modern age of social media.
That is where the most recent high-profile attack on an MP originated, after posts on what they thought was a private account by Green MP Benjamin Doyle made it into the public domain.
When originally shared by activists the subject achieved limited traction, but once New Zealand First leader Winston Peters weighed in it suddenly became the biggest political issue in a week which included the potential purchase of new interisland ferries and the imposition of trade tariffs on New Zealand by the United States.
The rights and wrongs of the behaviour of any or all of the MPs dragged into this saga will be for history to decide.
But in broad terms, justified or not, the allegations made represented a whole new level of criticism of a political opponent.
Complaint about the standard of behaviour of MPs in the House is nothing new — Greeks observing the Agora or Romans watching Senate debates probably made similar comments about their politicians.
But combine the amount of highly personal comment about MPs with the extreme level of partisan barracking the House at present — something which Speaker Gerry Brownlee regularly rails about but which he seems powerless to prevent — and New Zealand politics seems to be sliding toward a darker place.
For many MPs, it has been there for years. A report sponsored by then Speaker Trevor Mallard in 2019 highlighted ongoing issues with sexism and bullying in Parliament, especially so for women working in the complex. Debbie Francis’ findings echoed those of studies of the experiences of women MPs, and new research is to be released this week which sheds still further bleak light on the gruelling lives that our women politicians lead.
Apart from being atrocious, they also have to potential to inhibit or even prevent a politician from doing their job and representing their constituents properly.
Some will say that is just politics and that they need to harden up, but it is not just the politicians who are affected. Staff have to clean up the graffitti and deal with the offensive mail, and family members of politicians can be unwittingly and unwillingly placed in the firing line.
The latest sorry example of this occurred over the weekend, when the wife of New Zealand First MP Shane Jones was allegedly assaulted by a member of the public. No matter how much Mr Jones’ politics might offend someone, nothing justifies venting that frustration upon a family member.
Hopefully this is an isolated incident and proves to be a one-off, but in the current political climate it is difficult not to see it as anything but yet another ratcheting upwards on the bad behaviour scale.
Is it too much to ask that our politicians conduct their business with greater decorum, and that the general public show our MPs, councillors and other elected representatives some common decency?
No, it is not. But expecting things to change may be too much to hope for, more’s the pity.
